Thursday, January 3, 2013

Photoshopped Standards

Do you think the woman on these three magazine covers is the same person? Believe it or not, all three are Reese Witherspoon.

I have always love computers, but ever since I took an advanced computer graphics course in school last year, I've been addicted to Photoshop. I'm actually retaking the course again this year, it's just too much fun. I really love working in Photoshop (I can usually be found in the computer lab messing around on
it) because you can do so many awesome things with pictures.

One reason
Photoshop is so infamous is because it can be used is to airbrush and otherwise
“improve” photographs. Before I knew how to use the program, I had always assumed that it was difficult to “fix”
pictures like that. In reality, once you know how to use Photoshop, it’s not
hard at all. Smoothing out skin and hiding pimples is literally done by
blurring them out or clicking a few times with a specific tool. Making a person look thinner, or getting rid of any undesired
part of a picture, is just done by using an eraser tool to erase parts of the
body, just like in a basic paint program. Brightening teeth, hair, eyes, and
other body parts is done by painting them the desired color or using a specific tool. Making skin tone a
“better” shade is done by adjusting the picture’s color levels, a process that’s
hard to explain but takes approximately 45 seconds.

These are just a
few of many methods that magazines use to edit models’ and celebrities’
pictures. I say all this to show how the editors at all the supermarket
magazines barely have to work to make a picture adhere to today’s beauty
standards. In reality, the celebrities we all worship and wish that we looked
like don’t really have the faces and bodies we think they do. (Have you ever
noticed that celebrity babies are often not particularly cute? It’s because
their parents aren’t particularly cute in real life, either.) I would estimate
that 75% of it is Photoshop-induced, and the other 25% is plastic surgery,
personal chef, and personal trainer.

So why should
you strive to attain that impossible standard that celebrities set in
magazines? It’s not real, so you’ll never be able to reach that goal. There’s
no reason you should stare into a mirror for hours on end, wishing you looked
more like the women you see in the tabloids. If you want to change the way you
look, it’s definitely worthwhile to have concrete goals, but they have to be possible.
If not, you’ll never feel happy with yourself, and doesn’t that defeat the
whole point?

About Me

Prayer for Agunot

Creator of heaven and earth, may it be Your will to free the captive wives of Israel when love and sanctity have fled the home, but their husbands bind them in the tatters of their ketubot. Remove the bitter burden from these agunot and soften the hearts of their misguided captors. Liberate Your faithful daughters from their anguish. Enable them to establish new homes and raise up children in peace.

Grant wisdom to the judges of Israel; teach them to recognize oppression and rule against it. Infuse our rabbis with the courage to use their power for good alone.